SC ADVOCATE QUITS PRACTICE, CITES ‘HUMILIATION’
NEW DELHI: Senior Supreme Court advocate Rajeev Dhavan said he was quitting court practice on Monday and that his decision was prompted by the “humiliation” he faced during the hearing of a trial related to the turf war between the Centre and Delhi government.
New Delhi Senior Supreme Court advocate Rajeev Dhavan said he was quitting court practice on Monday and that his decision was prompted by the “humiliation” he faced during the hearing of a trial related to the turf war between the Centre and Delhi government.
Dhavan conveyed his decision in a letter to the Chief Justice of India (CJI), Dipak Misra, who headed the Constitution bench that heard the case on December 6, when, the senior lawyer says, he was treated badly in open court.
“After the humiliating end in the Delhi case, I have decided to give up court practice,” read his letter to the CJI.
“I stand by what I have written in the letter. I would never go back to the court,” he said when Hindustan Times contacted him for his comments. He refused to say anything more.
Chief Justice Misra, too, declined to comment.
Dhavan chose to convey his reasons to quit, though he wasn’t bound by any rules to do so.
His decision follows arguments with the Chief Justice on two consecutive days last week, when he was one of the senior lawyers representing the Delhi government.
On December 6, the last day of hearing, CJI Misra asked Dhavan not to repeat arguments already presented by other counsels on his side. The lawyer insisted on making his point, leading to an exchange with the top judge.
A day before, during trial in the Ram Mandir-Babri Masjid dispute, the lawyer asked the threejudge bench to not to start hearing the case, arguing that it would not end before October 3 next year, when Chief Justice Misra retires.
The bench headed by the Chief Justice didn’t welcome his argument and one of the judges, Justice Ashok Bhushan, called it unfortunate.
Also, the CJI disapproved of the remarks. Without naming any lawyer, he lashed out at senior advocates for making “atrocious arguments” at a high pitch and warned of severe action if the bar failed to regulate its members. He said such lawyers don’t deserve a senior designation.
The top court had designated Dhavan as a senior advocate in May 1994. In the letter, Dhavan asked the Chief Justice to take back his designation, but sought to keep the black cloak that came with the job for the “memory and services he rendered”.
You’re entitled to take back the senior gown conferred on me... I’d like to keep it for memory and services rendered. RAJEEV DHAVAN, senior Supreme Court lawyer, in his letter to the CJI